To ask your thoughts on naming children after the parents/ grandparents

[Bearbehind]

Just that really?

I have never really understood the desire to name a child David, after his father and grandfather David (a la Royle family) as there are so many names to choose from but lots of people seem to do it.

Isn't it confusing?

My DD is named after my maternal grandmother, who died when I was 10. As it happens the name was quite popular at the time. If it had sounded really old fashioned I would have used it as a middle name.

DH has his mother's maiden name as a first name. Sil's DS is the same (different names). I quite like this but my maiden name would not have translated well into a first name.
DS has a traditional Scottish first name but he is the first on both sides of the family, has DH's and my dear grandfather's name as middle names.
I'm named after my DM.

Before DF was born his father's family had five generations with the same Christian name. DF was given a different name and it seems a shame that the tradition was broken. They were Scottish.

My daughter has my name as a middle name. I actually like the name so much I would have used our as a first name except that may have been confusing. It was only a small factor that I'd be naming her after me. The main reason was we just really liked the name (which happens to also be mine!)

Ds2 is named after my dad, both first and middle name. I share the same middle name. Ds1 and ds3 don't have family names. Dh has the same first and middle name as his father and grandfather but he didn't want to use the names for our sons. If I had a girl it would be a miracle I would name her after my mother and sister.

DS has a middle name which is (was) the middle name of my late father and the first name of OH's father. Of course MIL constantly proclaims to all and sundry that we've named our DS after her husband......

Wouldn't do it in a month of Sundays.

DH's family makes me laugh though. FIL has his father's name as his first name but is known by his middle name. PIL had 4 boys. Each has a first name and middle name. Not one has GFIL's name anywhere. But once babies started being born to DH's brothers they were clamouring to have a boy so that they could use GFIL's name, because it was a "tradition".

My daughter has my name as a middle name. I actually like the name so much I would have used our as a first name except that may have been confusing. It was only a small factor that I'd be naming her after me. The main reason was we just really liked the name (which happens to also be mine!)

My name is an anagram of my mother's.

I was always told that is "not the done thing" to name a child after someone living, and that it should only be used as a way to honour the dead. I'm not sure why, but it seems weird to me when people do it.

It depends where you come from. Traditionally in Scotland you call your first son after the paternal grandfather, the second son after the maternal grandfather and the third after the father. Girls are first daughter after maternal grandmother, second after paternal grandmother and third after the mother.

My ds has a name that the eldest boy in his father's family has had for generations When dp was born his father had fallen out with his father so dp was called something else. And FIL regretted it for years. He was so incredibly happy when we gave ds the name. Fortunately it's a lovely name!

I'm named after my granny (confusingly she never used her actual name, she was known by a nickname). I like the link to her - I still miss her. I would have liked to call DD a variant of my mum's name but there's no way my husband would have gone for that!

I worked with someone once called Rose who had a DD Rose. Her Rose was 5th or 6th generation. She said when she was younger she said she wouldn't do it when her DD came it felt right.

Every first born male in my Dads family had same name for several generations and name is also a family name in dh's family. If we had had a boy would have at least been middle name and possibly first name.

I was named after my mother (her nickname, not given name) and so consequently I tell people I am called LittleCandle, not that it is my name as I have never felt it was my name. My middle name is after my aunt who died very young a couple of days before I was born and so that is not my name either.

XH had the same name as his father and his son also had the same first name. XH's mother, sister and niece all had the same name. BIL was named after MIL's DB. Niece thought she had it cracked when she got married, but discovered her DH's name was his middle name, as he was called after his father, who had the same first name as my XH, FIL and DSS.

My DDs were called after nobody that I knew at all. DD1 had a baby last year and her middle names are my mother's given name and her DP's DGrandmother's name, which is fine. DGD's first name is not a family name on either side. DD1 had learned her lesson!

I named my pfb ds after my dad. It was my dads name and his dad's name.

My dad died last night. I think I probably have done very little in my life to make my dad proud of me, but I was proud of him. He was a wonderful man - kind, quiet but funny, dignified, intelligent. Everything I am not. He was so chuffed when he learned of my sons name. I'm glad we did it.
My ds is 14 months old and will never remember his grandfather and for this I am very sad.

Our son is T.J and his dad is J.T so it's the same name but the other way around.

I like him being named after a good man his father and he is such a mini his dad

I'm so sorry for your loss Runningbutnotscared

My first born son has my younger brothers name as his middle name - he had cancer when Ds1 was born and died when DS1 was 9 months old.

I grief for the fact that despite a million pictures of them together, my DS1 and ds2 will never know how amazing their uncle was.

I understand your pain and I'm so sorry that your grief is so new.

My son is named after both paternal grandfather. I love it. my paternal grandfather was gentle and reserved and kind. DHs paternal grandfather was funny, spirited and strong as an ox. I just loved the idea that ds could get some of those qualities.

I decided I would like to call a son DS's name 3 years before I met DH and 14 years before DS was born. It also just happens to be FILs first name and DH is very close to him, so it's a happy coincidence. He has my Grandad's name as a middle name, because I was very close to him. Doesn't cause any problems, one is in another country, the other is deceased.

My DS2 has the same first name as his father and grandfather but a different middle name. His grandfather was 'Big' or 'Grandpa' Name, my DH is shortened version of Name, son is full version of name, although now he's grown his friends use the same shortened version as his dad.

I love my dad's name but somehow it's mutated into a girl's name in the last 10 years. DS says he's still going to muse it for one of his children's middle names and now he says he can use it whether he has a boy or a girl.

'Family names' are used a lot in my family on both sides. It's a traditional thing in Ireland as far as I can see. I used names from my family for all of my children, both first and middle names. Two of them are named after my parents.

Lalalyra and CalicoBlue -- same idea in the part of Ireland my mum's family is from - grandparents honoured first in order, then other relatives, not excluding the father and mother.

I didn't follow the prescribed order, just chose family names as seemed fit.

'I think the problem is that unless you go back 3 generations which seems to be the cycle they come back round in generally then you get children with very old fashioned sounding names.'
Not necessarily, unless the original names that keep on getting recycled in each generation are along the lines of Ebenezer and Hephzibah. In my own family, names like Catherine, Margaret, Eleanore, Bridget, Anne, Mary, Joseph, Dominic, Michael, Robert, James, etc., crop up again and again. There were a few new additions over the generations -- especially in my father's family where huge numbers of children were the norm. Names were brought in by spouses too. Some of the additions became family 'classics' and some were dropped because they were corkers. There were still plenty left in the family canon.

My mother's family had some names that were very unusual in Ireland as a whole but not in the part of the country where her family lives. One of my DDs is at least the third generation with her name. The first bearer that I know of had no children and it is nice to have her immortalised imo.

It's not a question of having no imagination. Maybe it indicates a tendency towards a more conservative taste in general, more consciousness of family history and more value placed on a sense of belonging? I am not explaining this very well I suspect.

I felt I 'knew' the DCs, that they were already integrated into the family, as soon as their names were chosen. Since they grew up on another continent, far away from relatives, they have told me it is nice to feel a connection to their roots and to have that link to their heritage.

It most certainly isn't a 'chavvy' thing.

Running -- .

I've recycled names for my DCs.
DS1 is named after my dad who died when I was young, an ethnic version of DH's name and my uncle who died young a couple of years earlier and had no descendants. The names are all special to us and link DS to his family.

DS2 has a masculine twist on DG's name. His middle name was a random choice, an ethnic name from DH's background.

Their first names are the traditional ageless names that are easy to say and spell which was a winner for me.

My husband and his Dad have the same first name. I think it's stupid not a good idea. Also, his dad has a terrible credit score and it caused a bit of a problem when we were applying for our first mortgage, although was fixed. It's the not knowing who the post is for that would drive me mad. Also, as the dad is the oldest he gets the most normal version of the name but my husband gets called the kind of kiddie version or more formal version by his family. I use the normal one, as do his friends and colleagues.

We've got our first baby on the way. My mum died a couple of years ago so we're having her name as a middle name. We did briefly think of having it as a first name (I do like the name anyway) but in the end the thought of my granny saying her name to my child just doesn't seem right.

Also writing Christmas present labels is a bit annoying. This probably annoys them but I label the X snr and X jnr.

We do it. My name is a variant of my grandmother's. My daughter is named after both our maternal grandmothers too. My brothers are named after great-uncles etc.

As a middle name I like it but not as a first name. My dad passed on several years ago and I have since had 2 girls. Should I ever have a boy I will give him my dad's name as his middle name without doubt as I would love to honour my dad in that way